‘I’m gonna make you work for that 20%’: Influencers on the challenges of finding good management

Hi, and welcome to Glossy’s Weekly Recap, where Glossy editor-in-chief Jill Manoff breaks down the industry conversation that ruled the week and highlights five of the latest must-read Glossy stories. Sign up here to get Glossy’s daily, in-depth coverage on the businesses of beauty and fashion in your inbox every weekday morning.

At Glossy’s Beauty Pop event held in Los Angeles on March 13, influencers in a working group on “designing win-win partnerships” shared their tips and challenges for landing a beneficial manager.?

The question of how to land a manager was first posed by a beauty influencer who said she’s a mom of two who doesn’t post about 90% of her life — the part with her kids. As such, she said, she finds it hard to find time to create content let alone establish meaningful brand partnerships. She said she’s newly considering support via an agent, though she’s hesitant to give up a portion of her earnings. ?

One influencer suggested she use her platform by putting the word out and seeing what interest comes in.

Another influencer who focuses heavily on fashion also weighed in: “My manager reached out to me, but I'd worked with two other agencies in the past. If no one is reaching out, look at creators who are like you: You follow them, you relate to them, and they are at your level. Then look at the email address [in their bio] to see if it goes to an agency, and message that agency. A lot of agencies get submissions from creators — and a lot of creators are looking to change managers,” they said.?”My advice is that, if you’re getting a manager or an agency, get one that's in the U.S. — and if they’re in the [same] city, even better. And make sure they don’t take more than 20% [of your earnings]. If they take more than that, you need to be wary. And make sure you have access to the [agency’s] email [attached to your name].”

An attendee recalled a story she was told where an influencer was looped into a chain of emails between a potential brand partner and her agent, and discovered that her agent was taking a 70% cut of her rate. While working with the agent, many brands had told her that she was too expensive to work with, but she later realized it was because the manager was inflating costs to ensure their cut. “She obviously got rid of that manager,” the attendee said.?

Later, a group member who works for a brand said that she once hired an influencer agency to provide influencers for a job and later ended up chasing the agency for an invoice to make the payment. “I was like, 'I can only imagine what their creators are dealing with.'”

But there are great agents, some influencers stressed. One attendee said she first hired her manager because she was unable to keep up with her inbound emails about potential partnerships.?

“The connection with the actual agent means so much more and can be so much better than with the agency itself,” she said. “I've talked to one of the agencies that the biggest Insta girls are with. At the time, I thought, ‘I want to be with that agency.’ But they were so rude — and they didn't give a shit about me because I didn’t have 10 million followers. … And later, I found out that many of their influencers hate the agency and have been trying to get out of their contracts.”

She added, “I ended up working with a manager I connected with [online]. She saw what was special in me and said, 'We could be doing this for you.’ She genuinely believed in me, and I didn't get that from other places. … So, go with your gut. You have to vibe with them.”

And you have to stay on top of them, one influencer said. “If you take that 20%, I'm gonna make you work for that 20%,” they said. “There was a brand that I wanted to work with, and I told my manager, and she said, 'Oh, I don't have any connections there.' I was like, 'Then go find them.' And she did, and we ended up working together. It was a great partnership. And [my agent] thanked me for pushing her. .. I was like, ‘If I don't make money, you don't make money.’”

On that note, another influencer added, “These bills aren't getting paid on vibes and friendships. You might not be [an agent’s] only priority, but you are your priority —?so you have to make sure they’re working for you.”

Catch up on the week’s 5 most-read beauty and fashion stories below.

Why Kinship is no longer marketing to Gen Z

Starting Thursday with the launch of its latest product, the Dreamwave 2% Bio-Retinoid Complex serum, Kinship will roll out new primary and secondary packaging and messaging, as well as a fresh logo and an updated tagline — ultimately, a new focus.

As the ‘clean’ and ‘sensitive skin’ categories grow with minimal oversight, brands seek differentiation through third-party certifications

As consumer values and needs evolve in an increasingly crowded beauty marketplace, more brands are turning to third-party seals to validate their ingredient, safety and environmental claims.

Beauty & Wellness Briefing: The always-on influencer strategies of 3 top beauty brands

As brands focus on topics like earned media value and fight for market share within the attention economy, the consistency of the always-on middle funnel becomes more important. With that in mind, Glossy spoke with three brands to understand their approaches to middle-funnel influencer marketing.

Matches Fashion’s shuttering doesn’t bode well for multibrand e-commerce

Purchased for a bargain sum in December, it seemed like Matches was on its last legs even before the acquisition. And it’s clear from a new statement from Frasers that it found no plausible way to turn Matches around. More than half of the company's over 500 employees will be immediately laid off.

The Renewcell post-mortem, with chief commercial officer Tricia Carey

The world's biggest textile-to-textile recycler, based on volume, Sweden-based Renewcell filed for bankruptcy on February 25. But the story of its demise started much earlier and points to wider issues within the fashion industry and its lack of readiness to tackle post-consumer material innovation.

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